FIRST ON FOX: The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is planning out congressional oversight of the massive train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, in order to ‘fully understand the facts,’ beginning with a ‘bipartisan briefing’ Friday.

On Feb. 3, 50 cars on a Norfolk Southern Railroad train derailed, leading to a large release of toxic chemicals and endangering the surrounding community.

‘I have spoken to the transportation agencies involved, including the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Department of Transportation (DOT) as well as Norfolk Southern,’ Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Sam Graves, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital on Thursday.

‘Railroads Subcommittee Chairman [Troy] Nehls [R-Texas] is visiting the accident site in East Palestine, and the committee is planning a bipartisan briefing for House members to provide the latest information we have,’ he continued.

‘The NTSB’s accident investigation continues, so instead of speculating about all the potential factors, I want to fully understand the facts involved. When we have the facts, Congress can consider what next steps may be necessary,’ said Graves.

A committee aide told Fox News Digital that the briefing will be held Friday and that the committee’s planned oversight includes ‘continued fact-gathering and evaluation,’ keeping members informed and using that information to determine what ‘next steps’ may be necessary.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) told Ohio’s state government that it was not eligible for disaster assistance to help the community recover from the toxic spill, Dan Tierney, a spokesperson for Gov. Mike DeWine, told Fox News Digital on Thursday.

‘The DeWine Administration has been in daily contact with FEMA to discuss the need for federal support, however FEMA continues to tell Governor DeWine that Ohio is not eligible for assistance at this time,’ DeWine’s office said in a statement earlier in the day. ‘Governor DeWine will continue working with FEMA to determine what assistance can be provided.’

Norfolk Southern has offered financial compensation to locals who were displaced and has worked with the Environmental Protection Agency and state officials to conduct air safety tests. Health officials have assured the public that tests have shown the area is safe.

However, JD Vance, the freshman senator from Ohio, challenged EPA Administrator Michael Regan to drink the tap water in East Palestine.

‘If the EPA Administrator wants to stand here and tell people that the tap water is safe … they should be willing to drink it,’ he said Thursday.

Fox News’ Thomas Catennaci contributed to this report.

Texas Republican Congressman Troy Nehls suggested Thursday that Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, was being ‘irresponsible’ for advising residents of East Palestine, Ohio to drink bottled water amid concerns that the derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals earlier this month had contaminated the town’s water supply.

While speaking with reporters in the town earlier in the day, Vance said he would personally not drink the water to err on the side of caution.

‘No… I think that if I was living here, I would drink the bottled water for now. Better safe than sorry, especially since it’s being provided for free. That’s the guidance I would give. And again, residents are going to make their own decisions on this, but my honest, personal advice is: I’d be drinking the bottled water right now,’ Vance said.

Contrary to Vance’s advice, the EPA has said they haven’t detected any level of concern in the air or the water. But reports from residents in the area have surfaced claiming that fish and other animals have been dying.

Fox later caught up with Nehls, who was visiting the derailment site in his role as chair of the House Subcommittee on Railroads, and asked him about concern over the water’s safety.

‘The water within this municipality is safe to drink,’ he declared. ‘They have a water treatment facility. As a matter of fact, I just went to a local restaurant here and I said, ‘put some tapwater in here,’ and I drank it. The water is safe to drink.’ 

However, Nehls said that residents who have private wells and aren’t on the municipal water system should be concerned, because their water was not being run through the water treatment facility in the town. He encouraged those residents to have their water tested to make sure it was safe to drink.

Fox then asked him about lawmakers who had been suggesting the water in the town might be contaminated as a result of the train derailment.

‘I don’t see how that would help the situation. I almost would say that’s irresponsible. I mean, you have access to bottled water… that’s fine. But the point is, is if the water is safe through the water treatment facility, why wouldn’t you encourage your residents to use that water?’ he said. 

‘I just don’t see the benefit of that. Our local officials, with the state, have shown that the water is safe to drink. I just drank some. I’m not concerned about it. The mayor would have had a glass with me if he was here right now. So you’ve got to be able to trust some of your local officials. The mayor, the fire chief, they’ve all said the water is safe to drink. Drink the water,’ he added.

Fox News Digital reached out to Vance’s office for comment on Nehl’s suggestion but did not receive a response.

A Maine lawmaker charged with defrauding the state’s clean election system said Thursday he’s resigning and returning his legislator’s salary.

Rep. Clinton Collamore Sr., D-Waldoboro, made his announcement after pleading not guilty to 20 counts of aggravated forgery along with 12 counts of unsworn falsification and one count of violating the Maine Clean Election Act.

Collamore was already stripped of his committee assignment, and House Speaker Rachel Talbott Ross had called for him to give up his House District 45 seat.

Before Thursday, Collamore had been silent on the charges, and had continued to collect a legislative salary even though he hadn’t been at the State House in weeks.

In addition to returning his legislative salary, he said he would reimburse the more than $14,000 in public campaign funding he received.

President Biden remains in tip-top shape, according to White House physician Kevin O’Connor.

‘President Biden remains a healthy, vigorous 80-year-old male who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency,’ his physical, Kevin O’Connor, wrote in a Thursday memo request by Biden.

One lesion was discovered on his chest and removed. He still experiences a stiff gait, but it hasn’t worsened since last year. 

Biden continues to experience symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux, primarily having to clear his throat more often, mostly after meals, the report said. O’Connor said the reflux is the source of Biden’s throat clearing and coughing.  

The results come as the president faces questions about his age as he has yet to formally declare whether he will seek re-election in 2024. Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley took aim at the president Wednesday, saying that politicians should have to take a mental cognitive test before assuming office. 

O’Connor noted that the most interval event for Biden in the past year was his upper respiratory infection from COVID-19 last summer. He said Biden’s oxygen levels never fell below 97%. 

‘The President has not experienced any residual symptoms which may be considered to be ‘Long COVID,” he wrote. 

The physical was Biden’s second since taking office. In 2021, he was evaluated by O’Connor, who wrote the president ‘remains a healthy, vigorous, 78-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency.’

New Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales has hired his brother-in-law for a top position paying a six-figure salary, in a move that has drawn criticism as crossing an ethical line.

Shawn Grady began working as the co-director of the office’s Auto Dealer Services Division on Feb. 6, Deputy Secretary of State Jerold Bonnet told The Indianapolis Star. Grady previously worked as a sales consultant at a car dealership in southern Indiana and is married to Morales’ sister.

While critics raised questions of nepotism in the hiring, state law doesn’t prohibit state employees from hiring brothers-in-law or sisters-in-law.

The hiring represents another controversy for Morales, a Republican who took office Jan. 1 after winning election despite twice being ousted from low-level jobs in that office and allegations that he possibly committed voter fraud while running for a congressional seat in 2018.

Bonnet said Grady was recommended for the job ‘as a person with more than 5 years’ experience in auto dealer operations and extensive management experience.’

The Auto Dealer Services Division has previously had a single director, but Grady was hired as its co-director with a $108,000 salary along with Kyle Bonick, an attorney who was previously the division’s deputy director, The Star reported.

Bonnet said the office determined the responsibilities of the role are best met by two directors ‘due to the diversity and complexity of evolving agency duties with respect to motor vehicle consumers, manufacturers, distributors, dealers, resellers, and salvagers.’

One is an attorney who will focus on registration, licensing, investigation and enforcement, Bonnet said. The other, he said, is ‘an individual with industry experience, focused on consumer issues, dealer training and compliance, administration of the Indiana Motor Vehicle Sales Advisory Board, and mediation of manufacturer-dealer disputes.’

Grady did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday from The Associated Press.

Even though the hiring doesn’t violate the state’s nepotism law, ‘when you give the appearance of impropriety, it could cause problems,’ said Paul Helmke, an Indiana University civics professor and former Republican mayor of Fort Wayne.

Helmke suggested that the secretary of state’s office could have sought a formal opinion from the state ethics commission before hiring Grady.

‘It might not be a technical violation but when you’re talking about taxpayer dollars being used to pay for somebody’s position, you want to make it clear that somebody’s not getting favorable treatment because of that relationship,’ Helmke said.

Indiana Democratic Party chairman Mike Schmuhl criticized Morales for ‘hiring people for the personal gain of himself and his family.’

‘This kind of nepotism erodes trust in government and compromises the ability of public officials to serve Hoosiers transparently and effectively,’ Schmuhl said in a statement.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy visited the Arizona southern border on Thursday, arguing that it is controlled by the cartels and that ‘no-one believes’ the border is secure as the Biden administration claims.

McCarthy was in Cochise County, Arizona, with freshman Reps. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Ore., Jen Kiggans, R-Va., and Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis.,

McCarthy spoke after meeting with local officials and taking an aerial tour of that part of the border, which he said has seen some of the largest percentages of gotaways along the border. He dismissed claims by multiple administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Vice President Kamala Harris that the border is ‘secure.’

‘No-one believes our border is secure, not the border agents, not America,’ he said. ‘Mayorkas has no integrity to continue to say that.’

He noted the ongoing fentanyl crisis in the U.S.  Fentanyl, which can be fatal in tiny doses and kills tens of thousands of Americans each year, is primarily made by Chinese precursors in Mexico and then smuggled into the U.S. across the land border. McCarthy highlighted the domination of Mexican cartel influence, and said that it is they, not any government, that controls that part of the border.

‘The Sinaloa Cartel controls who comes across and the amount of drugs that come across,’ he said.

Republicans have been locked in a war of words with the administration over the ongoing migrant crisis at the border — which is now into its third year and has seen historic numbers of migrants flooding into the U.S. Republians, including McCarthy, have floated the possibility of impeaching Mayorkas over the administration’s handling of the crisis.

McCarthy put the blame squarely on the administration for its policies. 

‘This is a fundamental problem,’ he said. ‘This is a problem created by this administration.’

‘This has all got to change,’ he said. ‘This is our commitment and this is what we’re going to make happen.’

Republicans have pointed frequently to the massive spike in illegal immigration under the administration and tied it to the rollback of Trump-era policies, including the ending of border wall construction and narrowed interior Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) priorities.

The administration, meanwhile, has pushed back. It has claimed it is dealing with a hemisphere-wide challenge and has blamed Congress for failing to fix a ‘broken’ immigration system and provide necessary funding for the border. 

Although January’s overall encounters were the highest January on record, the administration has noted the sharp drop from 251,000 encounters in December to more than 156,000 in January – including the lowest number of illegal crossings since February 2021 – as proof that recent border measures announced by President Biden last month are working. Those measures include a parole program to allow 30,000 migrants from four nationalities in each month, and it is now facing a lawsuit from 20 Republican-led states.

‘Since President Biden took action to implement new border enforcement and immigration measures last month, illegal border crossings are down to their lowest levels in years,’ White House spokesman Ian Sams said ahead of the McCarthy visit. ‘Perhaps seeing this progress will spur House Republicans to do some soul-searching.’

‘Why did they oppose record funding secured by President Biden to strengthen border security and catch record levels of fentanyl? Why won’t they support President Biden’s plan to fund border security now? Why won’t they ask their Republican attorneys general colleagues to stop suing to end the very programs that are reducing unlawful crossings?’ he said. ‘House Republicans should spend less time on partisan publicity stunts and more time working on solutions.’

President Biden used his State of the Union to call for not only more funding for border officials, but also renewed calls for a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants already in the country. The latter is something Republicans in the House have pledged to oppose since Biden first introduced such a plan in early 2021.

The lawmakers at the border said they wanted to find solutions to the crisis as well, although it is unclear where common ground might lie.

‘So we are here to do exactly that, not play any kind of politics with this, but to find real solutions that will start saving lives,’ Rep. Ciscomani said.

John Ladd, a rancher in the area who hosted the lawmakers, said those at the border like himself had been dealing with the problem for too long.

‘I’m very hopeful this is the beginning of a new change in what we’re seeing out of Washington,’ he said.

On Friday, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries will visit the border in Laredo, Texas. According to a press release, the tour will examine ‘various aspects of homeland security and border operations.’
 

Gov. Tony Evers’ budget leaves the University of Wisconsin System about $130 million short of what regents say they need to run their campuses over the next two years, raising questions about whether they may raise tuition to make up the shortfall.

Republican lawmakers froze in-state undergraduate tuition systemwide in 2013 but lifted the freeze in 2021, allowing the Board of Regents to raise tuition if it so chooses. The board hasn’t made any increases since the freeze lifted, relying in part on federal pandemic relief dollars, but that could change if Evers’ budget stands.

The regents had asked the governor to increase the system’s budget by $435.6 million in the 2023-25 budget, according to figures compiled by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. The state has accumulated a $7 billion surplus, but the spending plan Evers released on Wednesday would increase system funding by $305.9 million over the biennium.

Republican lawmakers on the Legislature’s finance committee will spend the next four months revising the budget before sending it to the full Assembly and Senate for approval. From there, the budget will go back to Evers, who can rewrite it again using his extensive partial veto powers. If Evers’ funding proposal for UW survives in the final budget, regents could raise tuition to fill the $129.7 million shortfall.

The governor told reporters during a tour of a scissors-making company in Middleton on Thursday morning that his budget gives UW enough money that regents shouldn’t have to raise tuition, but he didn’t rule it out.

‘We believe that the revenue that we’re providing to the university is adequate so that there will not be the need (to raise tuition),’ Evers said. ‘Instead of talking about a freeze, we’re talking about the fact that we’re providing a significant amount of money to our higher education institutions and as a result of that there should be a moderate or no increase. The Board of Regents is able to raise rates if they wish but I think that will not happen.’

UW System spokesperson Mark Pitsch didn’t rule out a tuition increase. He said in an email to The Associated Press that the system appreciates the ‘investment’ that Evers has proposed but after 10 years of a tuition freeze and rising costs and inflation, ‘everything is on the table to ensure students get the education they deserve and parents expect.’

UW System President Jay Rothman appeared to endorse the budget Wednesday evening, tweeting that the spending plan ‘provides needed investment for the UW System to help fulfill its mission on behalf of the people of Wisconsin.’ He later tweeted that he looks forward to working with legislators and the finance committee on ‘how we can partner with them to address some of the state’s economic challenges.’ He didn’t elaborate.

Spokespeople for Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

Republican state Sen. Steve Naas, a member of the Assembly universities committee and a frequent UW critic, said the system doesn’t lack for revenue and challenged his fellow Republicans to hold the line on tuition.

‘If (the regents) increase tuition, it will only occur because the Republican legislature failed to protect students and families from Evers’ Board of Regents,’ he said in a statement.

His aide, Mike Mikalsen, said Naas wants Republicans to block any tuition increases, require the system to reduce non-instructional positions and mandate that every system school offer students a way to graduate in three years by allowing them to take only courses related to their majors.

FIRST ON FOX: Several physicians weighed in after Pennsylvania Democrat Senator John Fetterman checked himself into the hospital for clinical depression.

Fetterman’s health has been at the forefront since he suffered a stroke amid the 2022 Pennsylvania Senate race, staying in the spotlight even after he took the oath of office.

The Pennsylvania Democrat was hospitalized for several days last week before checking himself in again.

Dr. Marc Siegel told Fox News Digital that a ‘study out of strokes in 2016 reports’ that ‘one out of three strokes over a period of time has depression.’

‘But we think it’s much greater than that because the stroke symptoms themselves can be masked and you can think it’s the stroke when it’s actually depression,’ Siegel said. ‘The anxiety that you feel after a stroke can turn to depression and you may not be as easily able to diagnose.’

Siegel said ‘it has to do with a lot of issues here,’ number one being ‘brain chemistry changes after a stroke,’ which he says ‘can interfere with serotonin and other things.’

‘Dopamine things that actually put you in a better mood. One is neurochemical. The other issue is frustration and anxiety from not meeting your own expectations,’ Siegel said. ‘Clearly in this case, meeting other’s expectations. So it’s both biochemical and psychological and sociological, and a lot of pressure on him trying to perform up to the level of a US senator, whatever that means these days.’

Siegel said he is ‘not his doctor’ and doesn’t ‘know exactly what prompted this, but if Fetterman ‘feels that he needs to be in a hospital, then I would conclude or infer that the level of depression is significant enough so that he really can’t go back to work anytime in the immediate future.’

‘Per reports, he has struggled with depression throughout his life,’ Dr. Daniel Bober, the chief medical officer of Odyssey Behavioral Healthcare in Hollywood, Florida, told Fox News Digital. ‘His recent stroke was a factor in whether he would be elected to the Senate.’

‘Depression is common after stroke, affecting approximately one third of stroke survivors at any one time after stroke,’ Bober said. ‘It is possible that this may be a psychological reaction to the stroke, or related to the area where the stroke occurred within the brain.’

The psychologist told Fox News Digital that ‘there are a variety of treatments with good response rates, so it is encouraging he is seeking help.’

Another physician, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, told Fox News Digital the situation is ‘very sad’ and his hospitalization was by Fetterman’s ‘choice.’

‘He recently recovered from a stroke which could predispose you to sadness, depression. Any trauma or disease or illness can cause result in depression. The key is being strong enough and understanding to seek help,’ Nesheiwat said.

‘He has missed 8 votes this year due to illness,’ she said. ‘I pray for him and wish him best in health.’

The doctors’ calls come as Fetterman checked himself into a Washington D.C. hospital Wednesday night to be treated for clinical depression, according to his office, less than a week after checking out.

Adam Jentleson, Fetterman’s chief of staff, released a statement Thursday.

‘Last night, Senator John Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to receive treatment for clinical depression. While John has experienced depression off and on throughout his life, it only became severe in recent weeks,’ Jentleson wrote.

‘On Monday, John was evaluated by Dr. Brian P. Monahan, the Attending Physician of the United States Congress. Yesterday, Dr. Monahan recommended inpatient care at Walter Reed. John agreed, and he is receiving treatment on a voluntary basis.’

‘After examining John, the doctors at Walter Reed told us that John is getting the care he needs, and will soon be back to himself.’  

Fetterman was hospitalized for three days last week after feeling lightheaded, but returned to the Capitol Monday after doctors ruled out another stroke or seizure.

Fox News Digital’s Aubrie Spady contributed reporting.